One of my chicken coops is in the field next door smashed to bits, luckily no hens in it at the time, and the garden shed is on its side. :(
Hives OK as I went out in the gale to add extra concrete blocks to the roofs.
I would not use more than 5ml per seam how ever many boxes I had stacked, the trick is to judge the size of the cluster. I have one colony with a queen going into her third winter housed in a single WBC brood. Her winter cluster is not much bigger than a small melon, so I give 3ml per seam for...
I use the thin surgical type glove over the leather glove, the bees are less likely to sting, your leather gloves stay clean and the surgical gloves can be replaced easily when they become sticky.
But. When you remove the gloves don't leave the surgical on the leather as the leather cannot dry...
Get chatting to him about bees in general and what you plan to do, and then bring the subject round to why he gave up and what killed off his bees and take it from there.